MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 March 1921, Page 10

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

THE TYRANNY OF CAUCUS RULE. WHAT THE \RED PARTY IS AFTER. (Contributed by the Welfare League,) ■ The New Zealand Labor Party, which is a general political party, is out to dominate the whole of the local government of this Dominion. Tn the chief centres at least it is seeking to win all of the seats at the Municipal and Hospital Boards elections in April. No candidate is to have any consideration but those chosen by the Party and pledged to it. This is a challenge to the whole of the citizens who are not in that party, and if the citizens have any fight in them they will take it up. Whilst we would not give the* coterie labelled with the magic letters L.R.C. too much importance yet we think it should be kept before us that a daring and crafty minority tnay capture power if the general body of. the people are not alive to their own interests. A glaring proof of this is seen to-day in Russia, where a Communist Party, whose membership is officially given as 600,000, is ruling with a rod of iron over a population of 120,000,000. We know that here in New Zealand a mere handful of men can precipitate industrial trouble, and by that means dominate for a time the business and living conditions of thousands upon thousands who have never been consulted. The Municipal franchise is a wide one and all decent citizens should use it first of all to prevent the tyranny of party rule in Municipal affairs which are the business of us all. TYRANNY OF CAUCUS RULE. The tyranny of caucus rule consists of this. The Party delegate elected is not a free councillor, he is there as a party advocate and voting machine. For this reason, when a councillor or member is subject to instructions of the party caucus, he no longer represents the electors, but only the members of the party whose servant and lackey he is. At one time the Labor Party in New Zealand denied that it upheld the caucus rule principle, and we acknowledge that at that time it did not. There is now a new Labor Party, or to name it rightly, a “Socialist Party with communist leanings.” This party of Reds brazenly affirms and exercises the ■ power of the caucus rule. At Petone Councillor Anderson, a representative of the Labor Party, having just recently affirmed his opposition to a proposal that came before the council, displeased- the caucus of his Party outside, and a resolution was passed demanding his resignation. At Timaru the party censured two councillors who dared to exercise their own judgment. In Christchurch the L.R.C. censured a councillor who forthwith told the party to “go to Jerico” and, of course, he is out of the party now. Even oh questions not in their party platform, the caucus claims the power to direct and there is only the option of slavish submission or party ostracism. Remember! this is the party that is seeking to win all the x seats. WHAT THEY ARE AFTER. This party is after one thing, and that is the substitution/ of communist ownership and centralised control foi? personal and public ownership and the exercise of private rights. Tt aims at close government through the caucus. It would place the public services at the mercy of every industrial syndicalist movement by supporting every demand made in the name of Labor, whether it is just or not. It seeks to place all burdens upon property privately held; are for free trams, ferries, and other services in order to win general support, although knowing such things must be paid for somehow. What this party is after is full power to govern every • department of civic life in accordance with thenideas of socialist policy, and to pave the way for complete working class dictatorship on lines of common ownership of all the means of production, distribution and exchange. HALT! To value personal liberty, private rights of property, freedom of trade and business, democratic Municipal government instead of caucus dictatorship there is but one course open, and that is to unite solidly against this party movement in the interest of free citizenship and sound Municipal government.